Without limiting the scope of the present invention, this background of the present invention is described in connection with monitoring and analyzing traffic data in a telecommunications network.
A failure to establish calls upon request from subscribers in a telecommunications network can result in significant loss of revenue to a long distance carrier. Such failures may, for example, result from errors in databases, or in network elements themselves such as switches, network control points, signal transfer points, and the like. Clearly, downtime and associated deterioration in customer service quality and lost revenues could be minimized by surveillance techniques that detect at the earliest opportunity the onset and cause of call failures.
In order to provide economical, profitable and high level service, a long distance carrier or other telecommunication network operator must identify and correct maintenance problems as soon as possible. For this reason, data concerning the traffic carried by the network (e.g., call attempts, usage, calls successfully placed in a trunk group) is typically gathered and reported for subsequent analysis. Such xe2x80x9ctrafficxe2x80x9d data is generally collected by computer from the network at pre-determined intervals, and from various types of network elements such as voice switches, packet switches, and STPs. The traffic data may then be used by network planners, for example, to determine the appropriate trunk group or host/remote link sizes so that the network may achieve a predetermined grade of service and the optimum route selection sequences for use at different time periods for the forecasted traffic load (which is based on projection factors and statistics derived from previous gathering intervals).
The traffic information supplied to the network designer is thus currently used to efficiently allocate the physical resources that are already in the field, as well as those contemplated in planned construction. Moreover, analysis of the collected data also permits network personnel to verify whether customers are receiving an appropriate level of service from the network. Also, the traffic data enables the appropriate personnel to view and report on customer usage of particular services, switch modules, or trunks.
Real-time and historical traffic data is utilized for dynamic as well as trend analysis. Real-time traffic data originating from the various network elements flows into a data interface module and is reformatted by a data format module for input into a relational data base of a traffic data management system module. A user interface, which may be a graphical user interface, may be utilized for report generation and system management.
In addition to their use in the collection and processing of traffic data, computers may also be utilized to gather and analyze alarm reports from the network. Such computers are used by technicians to analyze and repair maintenance problems in the network. Large quantities of switch data may thus be stored and manipulated on a real-time basis to generate and display network element messages, once or repeatedly over a given time interval, which warn the monitoring technicians of service affecting problems. In this manner, switching, facility, and traffic information may be immediately displayed either graphically or textually at work station terminals located in different work-centers throughout, for example, a telephone company. Specific screens may be invoked in a windowed environment at a terminal when a given alert is received to inform the operator as to the problem or condition being reported.
Moreover, the features of telecommunication devices have advanced significantly thus helping the long distance carrier to run a more efficient and stable network. Even though there is constant pressure to upgrade older devices and expand capacity, there are many situations where this is simply not practical. As a result, much of the network may still contain older equipment which does not include the latest features. For example, the newer switches have automatic reporting features that periodically communicate traffic data to the network control center via communication links. Older switches, however, do not have automatic reporting capability. Instead, the traffic data accumulated by these older switches must be retrieved manually by the network control center by calling into the switch via communication links. Note that these older switches may only support trunk side connections, such as the DEX 600 or 600E manufactured and sold by DSC Communications, which is now owned by Alcatel USA, Inc.
The present invention provides a system, method and apparatus for monitoring and analyzing traffic data from manual reporting switches. The present invention establishes a communication link between a remote computer and the switch. Thereafter, the present invention requests and receives the traffic data from the switch via the communication link. The remote computer then parses one or more data elements from the traffic data, compares the parsed data with corresponding threshold data, and performs one or more predefined functions based on the comparison of the parsed data with the corresponding threshold data.
The apparatus and system may include a first database for storing the traffic report, a second database for storing the parsed data, a third database for storing the threshold data, and a fourth database for storing the one or more predefined functions.